By Andrew Irumba
Entebbe: Whereas mosquitoes, especially the female anopheles, are renowned transmitters of Malaria, scientists in Uganda are breeding a rare mosquito species that will instead fight the killer disease.
Jonathan Kayondo, an entomologist at the Uganda Virus Research Centre (UVRC) in Entebbe said that the research will inform a plan to use genetically modified mosquitoes to wipe out the malaria-causing breed.
The intervention will be added to the current methods used in the prevention and control of Malaria, among others, the use of mosquito nets and medicines.
As result of this new project, the Uganda Government is instituting an Insectarium, where research on genetically modified mosquitoes will be conducted as a way of fighting malaria in Africa. The mosquito is designed to quickly spread a genetic mutation that is lethal to its own species.
There are about 3,000 species of mosquitoes on planet earth, 800 of which are in Africa. However, only three species cause Malaria, one amongst them is anopheles mosquito.
Dr. Kayondo noted that the researchers will review the vector composition abundance and diversity amongst malaria spreading mosquitoes, the vector biting, resting, mating and breeding behaviour and insecticides used to kill mosquitoes before coming up with final results to be used to combat malaria.
The idea is that if these modified mosquitoes are eventually shown to be safe and effective, they might be released in villages plagued by malaria across Africa. Scientists hope that they would spread their mutation and eventually sterilize all the females, thereby crashing or drastically reducing local populations of the main species of mosquito that spreads malaria.
The research, being carried out by a consortium of several research organizations across Africa will be overseen by the United States Agency for International Development – USAID and UKAID on behalf of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Open Philanthropy Foundation. The partners have so far injected USD 25 million (90 billion Shillings) in the project, which is also running in Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana.
Deborah Malac, the US Ambassador in Uganda said that the strengthening of Laboratory systems that do research will enable Uganda and several countries around the world remain prepared to fight against the ever-increasing emerging health-related disasters.
The global goal is to eradicate Malaria by 2030, according to the United Nations while the Common Wealth Organization expects to reduce global malaria infections by half by 2023. Jimmy Opigo, the Director Malaria Control Programme in Uganda said such targets are constrained by the physical location of Uganda.
